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Label:Toscani combined two stories in this panel. Instead of using a frame to divide them, he set them in a unified landscape on opposite sides of a mountain range. This was part of a predella, or base, of an altarpiece made for the Ardinghelli family chapel in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence.

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Italian Paintings 1250-1450

The panel contains two scenes that are set in the same landscape and divided by a mountain range. On the left is the Baptism of Christ. Saint John the Baptist stands on the bank of the Jordan as he leans over Christ, who wears only his loincloth. On the opposite bank angels hold Christ's garments. To the right of the panel is the martyrdom of the apostle James Major, an event that is briefly recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 12:1-2. Here the saint has just been decapitated, as the executioner sheathes his sword and groups of soldiers stare as James's head rolls on the ground.

The other extant pieces of the predella to which this panel originally belonged are the Stigmatization of Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Nicholas of Bari Saving a Shipwreck (see Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, no. 3333) and the Adoration of the Magi (see Florence, private collection). The only surviving component of the main section of the altarpiece is the right lateral panel, Saints John the Baptist and James Major (see Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, no. 37.632), under which the Johnson predella scene would have been set. A painting of Saints Francis and Nicholas of Bari from the other lateral panel is missing. Three pinnacle panels still exist: Annunciate Angel (see Rome, Carradini Collection), Crucifixion with the Mourning Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist (see Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, no. 6089), and Virgin Annunciate (see Rome, Carradini Collection).

The center main section of Toscani's altarpiece was not a painting but a reliquary of the cross that had been donated by the chapel's founder, Niccolò Ardinghelli. This reliquary no longer exists; in 1487 the abbot of Santa Trinita commissioned Amerigo di Giovanni to replace the original reliquary with a new silver one.1 Although Amerigo's reliquary is now lost, written accounts suggest that it incorporated pieces of the old one. It is not clear whether Amerigo's reliquary was originally kept in the altarpiece. Although it was listed in an inventory of the chapel in 1505, by then it was not part of the altarpiece. Around 1665 a now-lost reliquary of the crucifix as well as images of Saint Giovanni Gualberti and the Blessed Umiltà were installed in the altarpiece.2 In 1740 Bernardo Davanzati, the abbot of Santa Trinita, wrote a description of the altarpiece that serves as a precious record of the lost main panel.3 In the upper section, above the sculptures, were three medallions, with the one in the center depicting God the Father and the dove of the Holy Spirit. Its original position over a reliquary of the cross would have been a reference to the Trinity, the titular of the church. The two other medallions depicted the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The altarpiece was in a chapel that Niccolò Ardinghelli had founded in 1399. It was at the top of the right aisle of the nave and adjacent to the transept. Niccolò had dedicated it to his namesake, Saint Nicholas of Bari, but because he had also donated the reliquary to the church, it was also known as the chapel of the Cross. In 1423 Niccolò's descendant Piero di Neri Ardinghelli commissioned from Giovanni and Domenico Toscani a complete refurbishment of the chapel, including mural paintings and a tabernacle altarpiece for the reliquary. Ardinghelli's marriage to Caterina di Niccolò di Nofri Strozzi on January 24, 1424 (modern style), provided the motivation for this project. The bride's uncle Palla Strozzi, the richest man in Florence, provided her with a dowry of 2,000 florins. At the time of the marriage he was still overseeing the decoration of his own newly constructed family chapel in the same church, where Gentile da Fabriano's altarpiece of the Adoration of the Magi (see Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, no. 295) had been installed only a few months before, and where Lorenzo Monaco (q.v.) was still at work painting another altarpiece for the sacristy.4

Given the new family alliance formed by the marriage, Palla Strozzi had a strong interest in seeing that the Ardinghelli reliquary was housed in a properly appointed chapel as soon as possible. Thus, as part of his dowry obligations to his niece, he partially paid the Toscani brothers for their work in the chapel.5 Some of the chapel's murals survive, including the one in the exterior entrance arch showing Saint Nicholas of Bari in glory6 and another, in the interior arched niche that marked the family sarcophagus,7 depicting the Pietà (see Florence, church of Santa Trinita, Ardinghelli chapel). The other walls and vaulting of the chapel were also painted, but nothing remains. The 1433 tax return of Toscani's widow states that Domenico executed the vaulting and Giovanni the rest.8

Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration altarpiece for the Strozzi influenced the style of the Toscani's altarpiece for the Ardinghelli. The Toscani panel of the Adoration (see Florence, private collection) derives directly from the Gentile, and the bird's-eye-view landscapes of the two other predella scenes also presuppose Gentile.

Toscani also borrowed from other sources. The position of the Baptist is based on one in the same scene in Ghiberti's first bronze doors for the baptistery (installed 1424),9 and the most immediate precedent for Toscani's depiction of the rare scene of Saint James Major's execution is Nicolò di Pietro Lamberti's sculptured predella of the niche of the Guild of the Furriers (Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai) on the façade of Orsanmichele in Florence.10 The saint's frontal position and executioner sheathing his sword are also used in Agnolo Gaddi's (q.v.) wall painting in the choir of Santa Croce in Florence11 as well as in works by Lorenzo Monaco and other late trecento and early quattrocento painters.

The use of a mountain range to divide two scenes was a common device. For example, Agnolo Gaddi used it in the above-mentioned mural in Santa Croce. The technique was also frequently employed in cassone paintings, including one by Toscani.12 The artist also used it in the predella from the altarpiece last recorded in the Nevin Collection in Rome.13 Carl Brandon Strehlke, from Italian paintings, 1250-1450, in the John G. Johnson Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2004, pp. 420-425.

* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.